Georgia State University Selects SkillSoft CourseWare for New On-Line Certification Programs
NASHUA, N.H., Jan 29, 2001 — SkillSoft Corp. (Nasdaq: SKIL), a leading provider of critical business skills training for e-Learning solutions, today announced an educational alliance with Georgia State University’s Division of Continuing Education. Georgia State University will include the SkillSoft courses in certificate programs offering participants concentrated instruction in project management, e-commerce, marketing and customer service, workplace communications, and organizational leadership.
Certificate programs provide participants with practical knowledge that can be put to use immediately — as well as position students for employment demands of the future. Full certificate programs require 70 hours of instruction, and specialty certificate programs require about 28 hours. Students can register for the on-line options beginning by going to www.theexplorer.org/professional–development/, the official website for the Division of Continuing Education.
With 400 courses in 20 different curricula categories, SkillSoft’s critical business skills library is the largest in the e-Learning soft skills market. SkillSoft courseware is in use at leading corporations such as Georgia-Pacific, Spherion, Reuters, Verizon, Fluor, TELUS, and Siemens, as well as learning institutions such as University of Phoenix, Strayer University, George Mason University, and Christian University GlobalNet. SkillSoft courses can also be used to meet certification requirements for the Project Management Institute, Certified Marketing and Services International, and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy.
“Continuing education is one of the areas perfectly suited for e-Learning,” said Chuck Moran, president and CEO of SkillSoft. “Through this new agreement, individuals in the Atlanta business community can now benefit from the same Web-based learning resources that Fortune 500 employers are using to further the skills of their enterprise workforces.”
“These online certificate programs offer participants a way to continue their education in critical business areas — with the tremendous flexibility offered by e-Learning,” said Eva Trussell, director of the Division of Continuing Education. “Participants can take courses anywhere they have a connection to the Internet at any time of the day or night. And since many of us already have demanding lives, this flexibility is a tremendous advantage.”
Courses in each of the certificate programs offered by the Division of Continuing Education explore fundamentals of the business topic, as well as offer in-depth instruction in specific areas. For instance, participants enrolling in the project management certificate program can choose project management courses with special focus on areas such as risk, cost, human resources, integration, and quality. Two of the online certificate programs — organizational leadership and workplace communications — can also be completed with traditional instructor-led classes or with a combination of online and classroom instruction. The Division of Continuing Education plans to supplement the online certificate programs with online mentoring, giving students the ability to ask questions of instructors through e-mail.
About Georgia State University
Georgia State University is the southeast’s leading urban research institution, offering more than 205 fields of study through 52 accredited degrees programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, and doctoral levels. The state’s second largest institution of higher learning, Georgia State University has an annual enrollment exceeding 30,000, with students coming from 46 different states and 127 countries. Graduate students make up 31% of the student body. To date, Georgia State University has conferred more than 130,000 degrees, and confers more than 5,000 degrees each year.
The Division of Continuing Education extends the University to external audiences through organized classes, seminars, short courses, conferences, education for licensure maintenance, certificate programs, customized training and distance learning. Last year, the Division offered more than 500 programs and enrolled more than 15,000 participants. Additional information about professional development programs offered by the Division of Continuing Education is available by calling (404) 651-3456 or visiting www.theexplorer.org/professional–development/.
About SkillSoft
With more than one million user seats, SkillSoft is one of the largest providers of e-Learning solutions for Global 2000 companies. SkillSoft courses cover a broad variety of critical professional and business skills; courses and support services are specifically designed to reap the benefits offered by the Internet and Web-based customer environments. This design enables SkillSoft users to access needed material, with the required specificity or breadth — any time and from any location with access to the Internet. Customers receive comprehensive learning and performance support solutions for their workforce, comprised of a library of more than 400 courses and more than 5,000 learning objects and 1,000 job aids. The library encompasses a wide array of business skills, such as management, leadership, communication, project management and customer service, as well as business subjects such as e-business, finance, marketing, sales, and strategy. SkillSoft complements its course library with SkillPort(TM), an e-Learning management platform that offers rapid implementation at a cost-efficient price point. SkillPort gives users control over their own learning environments and offers tracking and reporting capabilities. Additional information about SkillSoft is available by calling (603) 324-3000 or visiting www.skillsoft.com.
Safe harbor language: This release may include information that could constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements may involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results encompassed within the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those matters disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recent Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SkillSoft, SkillPort, RolePlay, and Search-and-Learn are trademarks of SkillSoft Corp. All brand names, trademarks, or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Contact Information
Dennis Brown
Director, Marketing Communications of SkillSoft,
603-324-3000, or dbrown@skillsoft.com
Carl Nelson of NEI Communications,
508-651-3100, ext. 102,
cnelson@neicommunications.com, for SkillSoft; or
Pat Dickinson, Division of Continuing Education, Georgia State University, 404-651-3417, or certificate@gsu.edu
